Sarah Howard

Profile

I came to the University of Leeds in 2025, to the position of Chair of Digital Education and Lead of the Centre for Research in Digital Education. Prior to that I had been at the University of Wollongong, outside of Sydney, in Australia. Before academia, I was the Chair of Fine Arts in a high school in San Franscisco, CA. I taught painting, graphic design and sculpture. I was also a member of the Technology Department, where I first started to work with teachers to support technology integration in their classes. I have 20+ years of experience researching the adoption of digital technologies, by teachers, in schools and higher education. My work draws singificantly on action and collaborative research approaches, with a strong sociological underpinning. My driving questions focus on how we can make digital technologies meaningful for teachers and students, in different learning contexts. To do this, I look to employ new digital approaches to research, such as data science methods, new digital technologies and new ways to think about educational data.

Responsibilities

• Lead, Centre for Digital Education

Research interests

My research addresses the adoption and integration of new and emerging technologies, innovation and change in schools and higher education. Specifically, my recent work considers the use of new digital technologies and related educational data, and how they are made meaningful for teachers and learners. This work involves collaboration with schools, teachers, data scientists and artificial intelligence engineers to design new ways of capturing and understanding digital technology use in teaching and learning across physical and digital spaces. I have extensive experience collaborating with practitioners and industry stakeholders, with the aim to bring the sectors together with research to benefit learners of all ages.

Qualifications

• PhD, University of Sydney, Education
• MA, University of San Francisco, Educational Technology
• BA, Wheaton College (MA), Studio Art & Art History

Professional memberships

• European Association for Rearche on Learning and Instruction (EARLI)
• Executive Board Member, Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)

Student education

I am the Program Director of the Digital Education Masters Degree. I teach into this degree. I also teach into the undergraduate BA Childhood Studies and Education degrees. I supervise MA and PhD students in the area of Digital Education, technology integration, technology adoption and change.